Guinea Pig Gut Stasis

Question
Hi Pat,

My adult male guinea pig 'Troy' has been unwell with Gut Stasis for several days now. Could you please tell me how long it is meant to take for guinea pigs to recover from Gut Stasis?

He has been unwell since Thursday afternoon, when my husband first thought he saw blood on Troy's face. He washed it clean and Troy seemed normal for the rest of the day. The next day, after eating his veggies, he again looked like he had blood on his face. His poop production was down and he seemed really tired.

I took him to the vet that evening, who said it was actually just carrot juice on his face but that Troy had broken one of his bottom front teeth. She said that the messy eating was probably a result of his tooth problem and gave him two injections: one for pain relief and the other for to get his gut moving again to help with his poop production.

It is now Sunday afternoon but Troy has not fully recovered. He is eating some hay and veggies, but still not pooping much. This morning his back legs were trembling a bit after he ate and it looked like he was trying to poop but nothing was coming out except one or two really dry and hard poops. But then he had a good spurt of eating some grass and pooped about 8 reasonably healthy looking droppings before flopping down exhausted again.

I picked up some critical care mix today but he would only eat a little bit on some red capsicum.

I know that lettuce if very water based and can have a laxative effect for guinea pigs. Could you also please tell me if I should offer him some lettuce with the critical care mix on it and if there is anything else I can do to help him?


Thanks,
Kristen

Answer
I wouldn't try giving him a laxtative as you might end up over stimulating the bowel and causing more problems.

I would recommend you also give him so probiotics as so many of the antibiotics cause gut problems. As long as he can chew it I'd give him as much lettuce as he will take. The hydration may just do the trick.

Broken teeth grow back very fast. A tooth can be broken to the gum line and grow back in less than two weeks. It's unusual that a bottom tooth was broken, it's generally the tops are the most common teeth to break.

Critical Care is excellent for keeping his nutritional needs where they should be. That blood was probably from the carrots. You can also add some melon pieces to his diet as they're full of water as well.

I hope he gets over this asap. Cavies are so stoic when it comes to showing what ails them. Best of luck to you. Hopefully this will pass (no pun intended( very soon.